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home sweet home?

so now we are finally up to the last two days..thursday morning began with china and continued with more deportment..the stuff covered in deportment was basically the stuff that was covered in the art of personal presentation class. well some of it anyway - that extra class was worth it, just. then for lunch we had a chinese meal, which i was DREADING as i am completely useless at using chopsticks..have never quite managed to acomplish the art of chopsticks. until thursday. now i'm an expert...although i wouldn't hold me to that, but i did manage to pick up and eat a large veggie spring roll in my chopsticks. i was sitting on the veggie table because i'm special (haha) and don't eat shellfish so that made it easier - i did have the meat dishes though, the food was so tasty (as always, they did such a great job with making it etc) and for dessert was fruits, which we ate with toothpicks.



thursday afternoon was spent packing/relaxing/blogging. sarah, shanelle and i had planned to go out for dinner after my class of "organising a cupboard" and "making a bed". unfortunately my cupboard was empty as i was "packing" (i actually was, my cupboards were empty but my suitcase was definitely not full!). and i was in such a rush after class to get to town that i forgot my camera and other things.

after dinner (which i think was the quickest dinner i ever had!) i finished packing my stuff to a certain extent and i had agreed to switch rooms for the last night as some of the other girls had gone to geneva so i was sharing with sarah and shanelle. as cecilia had been ill, we swapped bedstuff..



on friday morning, i woke up at 6am to finish packing and make sure everything was in order before breakfast etc etc. the view from the window in the mornings is beautiful



after breakfast we had class - brazil, and towards the end of the class we had a review of the 3 weeks just passed with the principal. it was interesting to hear other people's opinions of things and i like that it was done pretty openly. after this class we had "formal elegant meals" which was generally just dinner parties and important things to remember. lots of people were moving rooms and it was slight madness. then it was lunch which i had to hurry my way through in order to get all my last bits done! including taking photos with teachers..haha



the story of my journey home is an interesting one...i will copy and paste it from a message i sent to a couple of my friends...(not forgetting the fact that i forgot some stuff and had to get someone to run and get it for me..)
so i didn't realise quite how heavy my suitcase was until i had to carry it myself and i broke off the pully thing. i struggled getting it on the train, i struggled getting it of the train. once at the airport i didn't have the right money for a trolley (which, fyi is 2fr or 2€) so i had to push my suitcase, looked like a complete loser for about 20 mins, until some very tall kind man took pity on me and helped me the last half a mile. it's a long way. then i get to the check in desk and i am 7 kilos (14lbs) overweight!! so i go to the side and unpack a bit of stuff, put it in my hand luggage, then try again. i'm still 4 kilos (8lbs) overweight. so i ask how much it costs, the woman says 20fr per kilo and no they dont take travellers cheques but i can go to the bank downstairs (which i refused to do - that would involve taking my ridiculously heavy suitcase with me and i think i looked like how i did when i first met shanelle (a tomato is putting it mildly) so i tred again. i then put a load of clothes on me, threw some shoes and books away and went to the assistance desk to check how much my suitcase was. as you might be able to imagine i was getting really annoyed and distressed. when it was still 2 kilos (4lbs, you get the jist) overweight and the man asked me if i was ok, i burst into tears and ran away to compose myself. as if unpacking your suitcase in public isnt embarrassing enough, bursting into tears for no apparent reason might just top it. after about 2 mins of crying, he makes the last call for my flight so i have to go back to the same dude and i asked him in a weak and trembly voice "can you not just give me 2 kilos?" and he put it on the scales so that it was exactly 20 (it clearly wasnt properly on the scales but that made me a little less stressed). the stress then increased when, having changed my shoes into my heels to make my case lighter, the guy was like RUN to your gate, get there as fast as possible. at this point, my hand luggage was overflowing, i was wearing a thick jumper, a cardigan and my hat and carrying my binder and my coat. still not gone through security, t-40 mins to take off. luckily i can read signs properly (unlike some of the people i met whilst complaining) and got to the right security with t-25 mins to go. the line was really long and i had to unpack my bag to get my laptop out and i finally got the gate with about 1 minute to go before they started boarding. and for some reason i had speedy boarding, which is a false friend, as once i'd gone through that little bit i had to wait for 10 mins for them to let us onto the plane and all i wanted to do was SIT DOWN. which i did.
the flight was ok, i think i could have been sitting next to robinho (although unless i can find a pic of a tattoo that this man had, i can't prove it was him) and then dad picked me up at the airport with louise and that was that. now i'm home. the end.

all good things must come to an end...

and this is the last week! it's gone so so quickly it's crazy! first class of the day was "deportment" - yes, kind of like walking and things, but no books on heads, unfortunately! walking up and down the stairs, getting out of a "car" - that sort of stuff..fun times. the other half of the class was image with the teacher who did the personal presentation class and i think most of the stuff that we covered in that class was stuff that we covered in the personal presentation class. after the break we had eastern coffee traditions, so we "drank" arabic coffee and turkish coffee and read our futures..i say "drank" because i can't drink coffee, but it was interesting all the same to taste the different flavours. after sleeping VERY badly the previous night due to sunburn, i swapped with payal as i was supposed to be eating upstairs and agreed to eat upstairs the following day in order that i could sleep that afternoon. cooking class was great, we made crepes filled with spinach, which took two of us, but something i definitely plan to cook when i get home (maybe as a main dish though, rather than a starter)! nothing exciting (that i remember) happened on monday night. so here are some pics from the day..ooh no wait, there was a walk to the forest involved. see pics:



tuesday morning we took a trip to egypt and then had a class on business meals - why people have them, what kinds of meals can be had, the obligations of the host and such like. then another sleep in the afternoon after lunch, which was sarah's exam, so i did my best to talk as much as possibl! followed by flower arranging - we arranged the flowers on the lunch table in the formal dining room, something which we haven't done yet, so that was cool - they looked really good. i will steal someones photos of the table before long, and edit it. after some dinner i had my pr class, which i wasn't hugely looking forward to, i wasn't sure about it after the first one, but i very much enjoyed it - the teacher is very entertaining, and really into social psychology and he is always telling stories about different experiments and its something i find very fascinating (i have noticed i say interesting a lot, so i'm using a thesaurus to find different words for such a word).

check back again for yesterday and today very soon!!

time flies when you are having fun?

ok so i accidentally forgot to upate in a while. well, this is not entirely true, but partly. the internet was down all weekend and i forgot to get into gear and actually update! friday morning began with "food and drink taboos" - things not to serve at a formal meal, common allergies, medical diets (like diabetes/coeliacs etc) and obv the big'un - religious taboos. interesting to see the different kind of diets people follow because of their religions! then spain, which was standard country-file as it were. bull-fighting was discussed in detail! after class was an indian thali lunch. SO nice! the food was great and eating with my hands was interesting, the principal told me i ate gracefully with my hands...which made me think that she thought i did it a lot, which i dont. see pics:



anyway, friday afternoon is a blur. i.e i don't quite remember what i did! ah yes, now i remember. shanelle and i walked down to montreux! see pics:



then in the evening we had a dance party after watching bride and prejudice, my first ever bollywood film, which was great, in one of the classrooms in our pyjamas(!) before going to bed to get up for our saturday excursion to zurich! it was such fun, and some nice exercise too!



saturday morning was an early start for the trip to zurich, which i was looking forward to as i was meeting up with a friend from nottingham and a good day of shopping!




sunday was spent by the pool, accidentally burning myself. oops. like lobster. i cant remember the last time i was this burnt. eek. sunday evening irene and madame lopez made us all raclette because some of us are leaving on friday! can't believe how quickly it has gone!!

ok this is enough for one post, i need to pack some and get ready for class (yes, we have class in the evenings - pr.) expect more like this soon!

the art of personal presentation

so, where are we up to?...ah yes, wednesday. i bemoaned getting a questionnaire with the time for my personal presentation class slap bang in the middle of an afternoon i normally have very free, but the class was really good fun! ah yes. the morning began with "tricky foods", in fact the whole morning was taken up with tricky foods, the first part theory and the second part practice. this involved a lot of cheese and fruit right before lunch! i was hostess and nivrithi was host. we filled in the form beforehand with guests names and their jobs, ages, hobbies etc. and conversation topics too. and then everyone was stuffed before lunch so that went quite quickly - as a hostess i was happy with my staff and the food. all good. surprisingly good in fact. then i took a taxi to montreux for my personal presentation class. i was early so i sat by the lake and watched. i was in such a bad mood before the class because i had to pay for the taxi and i wasn't too keen on the idea of being told what to wear etc etc. but the class was great, i thoroughly enjoyed my colour, style and skin consultation. i discovered my season is: summer, my style is: something, my mood is: the other something (its all in the file which i have closed until i go home) and my skin is: sensitive. but i knew that already and the woman was so nice and we laughed a lot and she did my make-up. see pic:



and i can't remember what i did in the evening.

thursday, yesterday, our first class was "guatemala" - irene is from guatemala so she taught us etiquette and manners and stuff from guatemala, similar to that of the switzerland class of tuesday. the second class was with madame neri, the principal. i was particularly not looking forward to this class because i didn't know whether or not she had read my semi-rude note about having to pay for the taxi to my class, which i had paid extra for. and also, every time she looks at anyone, i just feel she is scrutinising their every move! eek. after lunch, for which i was downstairs (thankfully) with the journalist amongst others. the journalist has been driving everyone mad - chewing gum (we get fined for doing that), interrupting the whole time and picking her nose, not forgetting her oversized mouth. she wants to write a book on etiquette, and is doing research..she needs to put into practice what we learn in class!! after lunch i washed clothes and then had a class on ironing. which i now officially HATE. i dont hate much, but that i definitely hate. i think i probably took silly shirts with me to iron, but never mind. the class went surprisingly fast, then i had dinner and went to bed! i was tired/moody so didn;t really feel like socialising!

today (finally, will be up to date)...

mixing cocktails, great start to the week!

not that i'm complaining or anything! so back to school on monday and first class of the day is mixing cocktails, like i said..great start to the week. please see photos:



following cocktail mixing was menu planning for entertaining - what to avoid when inviting people, what foods dont go together etc etc. then it was lunch. the food is still good, but i find it weird eating a 3 course meal at lunchtime! and i was a guest upstairs in the formal dining room, the first of THREE times out of four this week!

monday afternoons = cooking, and this week it was sushi! see pics:


tuesday was the start of our p.r. class in the evening, but before that in the morning, we had a class on switzerland - infos and etiquette, food, etc etc, then after that was dress definitions - the fact that we have to be aware of things such as: religious taboos, season, occasion etc etc, we saw some pics from ladies day at ascot and we compared pictures of people who look elegant in one pic then awful in another..what makes a person look elegant?clothes for different formal/nonformal occasions.

in the afternoon we decorated tables for a biscuit themed party, see pics:



because my table decoration class finished at 7, and my pr class started at 8, there wasn't time to go anywhere for dinner, so i asked them to give me a boiled egg at breakfast that i would keep...this is very etiquette school ;-)



the pr class was very interesting, we presented one another and learnt lots. the teacher was really interesting, works for nestlé and i very much liked his style of teaching, it was really laid back and the classes are always interesting, its nice to have a different mix of people - some of the people in the class i don't have any classes with at all.